Background While low-grade inflammation has consistently been observed in subjects with depression, studies on the possible relationship between inflammation and other aspects of brain function are as yet sparse. In this study, we aimed to investigate the possible association between serum levels of the inflammation marker C-reactive protein (CRP) and personality traits. Methods In this study, s

The purpose of this study is to carry out updated and developed life cycle assessments of biofuels produced and used in Sweden today. The focuses are on making the assessments as relevant and transparent as possible and to identify hot spots which have significant impacts on the environmental performance of the specific biofuel production chains. The study includes sensitivity analyses showing the

The Paleoproterozoic part of the Fennoscandian Shield is composed of crustal components formed in different tectonic settings and generally separated by well-defined shear zone systems. An anomalous transitional boundary has been investigated by integrating structural analysis and geochronology with published geophysical data. The nature of this boundary is interpreted to be a consequence of an ap

The aim of this thesis was to conduct a prospective investigation of anxiety and its long-term effects on women referred for colposcopy after an abnormal cervical smear. The thesis comprises four articles, all based on a study of the current life situation, anxiety (Spielberger's state-trait anxiety inventory, STAI), depression (Montogomery Isberg Depression Rating Scale self-rate), psychosexualit

There are considerable expectations about the ability of genome-wide association (GWA) studies to make exciting discoveries about the role of genes in common diseases. GWA studies may allow researchers to identify causal pathways that have not been unveiled before, thus opening new avenues to disease understanding, prevention and therapy. However, there are still many open challenges. One is how t

In this Letter, we use a discrete polarizable solvation model for a systematic analysis of the solvent effects on the nitrogen NMR shielding and nuclear quadrupole coupling constants in a series of 1-methyltriazoles. Fairly accurate predictions are found for the solvent shifts of the nitrogen NMR shielding constants. The analysis of the relative half-height widths of the resonance signal predicted

Ontology organizes and formally conceptualizes information in a knowledge domain with a controlled vocabulary having defined terms and relationships between them. Several ontologies have been used to annotate numerous databases in biology and medicine. Due to their unambiguous nature, ontological annotations facilitate systematic description and data organization, data integration and mining, patt

Abstract is not available

T cells are crucial players in cell-mediated immunity. The specificity of their receptor, the T cell receptor (TCR), is central for the immune system to distinguish foreign from host antigens. Superantigens are bacterial toxins capable of inducing a toxic immune response by cross-linking the TCR and the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II and circumventing the antigen specificity. Here

This study uses continuously logged driving data from 166 private cars to derive the level of jerks caused by the drivers during everyday driving. The number of critical jerks found in the data is analysed and compared with the self-reported accident involvement of the drivers. The results show that the expected number of accidents for a driver increases with the number of critical jerks caused by

Laboratory experiments have been utilised as a tool to determine the possible yield of soluble COD and VFAs from settled influent and preprecipitated sludge at Klagshamn wastewater treatment plant and to determine the degradability of the organic matter. The release of ammonium and orthophosphate from the hydrolysed sludge has been estimated. It is possible to produce soluble organic matter of goo

Thylakoids are the photosynthetic membranes of the chloroplasts in green leaves. Thylakoids have been found to promote satiety when added to food, both in animal experimental models and in human. The thylakoids act through inhibition of lipase-colipase catalysed hydrolysis of triacylglycerol, which is the main dietary fat component. The mechanism for inhibition is either a binding of thylakoids to

We deal with the construction of optimal channel shortening, also known as combined linear Viterbi detection, algorithms for ISI and MIMO channels. In the case of MIMO channel shortening, the tree structure to represent MIMO signals is replaced by a trellis. The optimization is performed from an information theoretical perspective and the achievable information rates of the shortened models are de

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att ta fram en prototyp till en ny genera-tion ledningssystem för skola och förskola. Det nya ledningssystemet ska möjliggöra ett systematiskt utvecklingsarbete, vilket krävs i den nya skol-lagen. Bakgrunden till projektet är de dramatiska förändringar som skolan och förskolan gått igenom under de senaste decennierna. Under samma pe-riod har skolans och förskolansIn this report a new method, a Development laboratory (D-lab), has been used. From the D-lab a prototype for e new Decision Support System for school managers evolved, that helped to adress problems with Management by Objectives (MBO) in local school organisations. In the report critique is raised against the way MBO has been used in school management. As a conclusion, a systematic development mod

Dendritic cells (DCs) comprise heterogeneous populations of cells, which act as central orchestrators of the immune response. Applicability of primary DCs is restricted due to their scarcity and therefore DC models are commonly employed in DC-based immunotherapy strategies and in vitro tests assessing DC function. However, the interrelationship between the individual in vitro DC models and their r

Organic farming has the potential to enhance ecosystem services such as crop pollination. However, it is not known if a similar effect can be generated on conventional farms, without reducing external inputs such as inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, by using more complex crop rotations including ley for animal fodder production. In two separate designs, both located in southern Sweden, we test

Safe water supply is one of the important Millennium Goals. For development of market water supply services, the willingness of consumers to pay is essential. The consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for piped water supply using the contingent valuation (CV) method with different starting point bids was investigated for the Pavlodar Region, Kazakhstan. The results showed that households with access